Are you writing a book? That's great. It's especially good when you discuss, even in a offhand way such things as Dzogchen and so on since that leads to interest in them. And Dzogchen is totally cool. This is not based in any sort of fact but when is religious thinking? Not very often (has it happened yet?)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard J. Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 3:05 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: State of Samadhi in the life of Ramakrishna Kirk wrote: > Wow Man, one cup of Starbucks and I'm wasted. > It's been awhile yes. It's good? Ung? > So, you got stoked. Well, I hope what I have posted below won't be too long for you and others to read. It needs more detail, but maybe others can help with that. Certainly we have seen quite a lot of detail already about the Marshy. There is some irony and just possibly enough circumstantial evidence to maybe make a few who already wonder a little more. Anyway, here is the first draft of chapter one of my book. Mahesh Chandra Shrivastava, (Marshy) b. 12 Jan 1917, claims to have been a totally devoted disciple of his great guru and master Brahmanand Saraswati, Jagatguru of Jyotirmath. I know Marshy's family name because I was introduced to his brother, J. P. Shrivastava at Rishikesh by Shantanand. Shantanand said, "This is Maharishi's brother." And the gentleman introduced himself as J. P. Shrivastava. (I also had the opportunity to ask some of the very earliest initiators who also confirmed this. I am TM initiate number 212, according to Beaulah Smith. A friend handled Mahesh's passport and reported to me the date of birth.) Basic Operating Thesis: The idea of Marshy beguiling Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings (which will be explained a little bit below) out of some lama or lamas fleeing the Chinese is no stretch at all. Perhaps nothing can be shown to those who cling to their delusions about Marshy and his mantra meditation. I think that Marshy well knew that even smart people will pay almost anything to get something for nothing - and Marshy's claims about TM sure made it sound like something really worth it. Of course, we all bought into the personality of Marshy. We probably started because he was so giggly, so beguiling, so promising, so clever when he answered questions in his singing, squeaky voice with that adorable accent. Those of us who attended SCI symposia were in awe as he took every scientist and philosopher by the hand and led him or her around to his way of seeing things. He was truly amazing! There is a Dzogchen monastery at Dehra Dun (not too far north and somewhat east of Rishikesh). It was founded in the 50's. Because we believed everything that came out of Marshy's mouth (CC in 3 to 5 years, levitation, that he was the closest of Guru Dev's disciples, that he must be as cosmic as he seemed) we believed that after Guru Dev died he indeed sat in a cave for some years until he introduced TM to the world. I think there is more evidence that he was busy pumping every lama and guru (Ganges River Valley saint) he could find for whatever he could learn from them. If he spent 13 years being Guru Dev's factotum, then he already had a very accurate knowledge of the who's who of the Himalayan foothills. Yet, for ourselves, we never actually KNEW a thing. Just what was it that we thought we knew so much about that we were so sure of Mahesh's "marshyness"? Marshy demonstrated time and again that he is as smart as they come, and if nothing else, that was the whole purpose behind those SCI symposia - to make sure everybody got the picture, read my lips: I am the smartest person on the planet, these professors and scientists defer to me. So, I don't really know that Marshy got TM from some sincere and unsuspecting lama, but the similarities between "TM" and the Tibetan Buddhist teachings of Mahamudra and Dzogchen are quite interesting. I have cited sources, so you can sort this out yourself, later. I have often enough seen him beguile the bejesus out of anyone who knew something that he thought he might be able to use. I actually became a teacher of TM in 2 weeks at Lake Louise. I had been a disciple of Yogananda for years and had told Marshy everything about Kriya Yoga. Mahesh said it was alright to continue doing Kriya Yoga, but to do TM first! Then, several years later, wonders of wonders, one of the Age of Enlightenment techniques turned out to be one of Yogananda's techniques. CAN SAY THE "PURITY" OF THE TEACHING? In the Mahamudra and Dzogchen (secret meditation methods in Tibetan Buddhism), every teaching session begins with everybody reciting the refuge prayer, a recitation of the great teachers of the past who developed and handed down (preserved) these meditation teachings. CAN YOU SAY PUJA? A word about secret: in the Tibetan tradition, "secret" means self-secret. It is right there in the very nature of your ability to think a thought, but you do not see it. In order for you to see it, to understand it, to be able to use it, you have to have a teacher point it out to you. This is Mahamudra. CAN YOU SAY: WE THINK THE MANTRA AS EASILY AS WE THINK ANY OTHER THOUGHT? In the very beginning of the text (Clarifying the Natural State), the author Takpo Tashi Namgyal, outlines many ways of calming (shamatha) the mind. Among them is a technique to do at night: "At night, focus the attention on a pea-sized white sphere between the eyebrows." CAN YOU SAY NIGHT-TECHNIQUE? Right after my teacher training course, Sattyanand came to our Center in Berkley to give advanced techniques. Several of us (exalted TM teachers that we were, two of whom were 2-week wonders and me) asked about the Night Technique. Sattyanand was quite open about it, he said that originally the technique had been to put your attention on the forehead, but people found that too hard, so it was move to several different physical places before it was to place the attention out in front of yourself. In the time of the historical Buddha, Shakya the Muni, meditation was well known. He talked freely and in detail about his childhood and his teachers. He tells a story from his youth about the ploughing festival. (Apparently not unlike an Amish barn-raising social event.) This is shamatha, being aware of the breath coming in, being aware of the breath going out. It leads to calmness and a state of peacefulness, just like TM. Later, when the Buddha resolved to sit until he reached enlightenment or die trying, he began with this shamatha which, as he himself tells the story, he recalled from his childhood. What the Buddha added to shamatha was vipasana, awareness of the mind's nature. What we do find in the Tibetan tradition, especially, is something called the Mantra Tradition. This is part of the Buddhist tantra and an exceptionally distant cousin, many times removed from the Hindu tantra. In this tradition, the repetition of mantras is used with specific mantras for specific purposes. CAN YOU SAY: WE SELECT THE RIGHT MANTRA APPROPRIATE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL? So mixing some Hindu mantras with some shamatha (in place of following the breath) and getting some people to come on some teacher training courses ("I will multiply myself") was not particularly difficult. But the "I will multiply myself" business didn't actually turn out to be all that true. There was no way he was going to create his own competition, after all. There was absolutely no way in this world that he was going to make anybody the least little bit like he was. (Now that he has nothing to lose, crowing a king is simply another foolish thing you have paid for in place of using your money to fund butt-bouncers in the bogus effort to magically create world peace.) Yet there was always the possibility that you might attain CC. CAN YOU SAY: MULTIPLY MYSELF? Some may recall his words about Lillian Rosen (one of the first non-Hindu persons he trained to teach advanced techniques: "when someone teaches advanced techniques they may be seen to be a guru; with Lillian, I know I am taking no chances" - well, you had to be there. CAN YOU SAY, "NOW SAY NAMAH AFTER XXX" We often watched in fascination as Marshy would ask about some other meditation method or some other guru someone had been with before coming to him. "Oh, what does he teach?" "Oh, what does that mean?" "Oh, and how were you told to do that?" He could be so darned innocent, so charmingly dumb and uninformed, we just had to tell him everything we knew. Didn't we. He could pump anyone this way for information and did. CAN YOU SAY SCI? Later he would take all this and work out the details of his increasingly advanced courses. Do you remember the 108? DO YOU REMEMBER THE 6-MONTH COURSES? DO YOU REMEMBER THE GOVERNOR'S COURSES? HOW MANY DIFFERENT COURSES WERE THERE? HOW MANY ARE THERE NOW? HOW MANY WERE YOU ON, HOW DEEPLY ARE YOU STILL IN DEPT? HOW ADVANCED DID YOU BECOME? * *HOW MUCH MONEY* * DID MAHESH INVEST AFTER ALL THE TEACHING WE DID AFTER WE GOT SO ALL FIRED UP AFTER ALL THOSE COURSES AND ALL THAT HOPE FOR THE FUTURE? We were always in total spellbound awe of him. Marshy has always been able to do a lot with a little; to churn out brilliant sounding explanations for what I think just might be meaningless experiences. CAN YOU SAY UNSTRESSING? Well, there is more, but this is enough for now. CAN YOU SAY BRAHMAN? To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links
